The GOP Gimmicks-R-Us Shop: The ‘Symbolic Congress’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The "just say no" to everything Republican minority becomes the majority "symbolic Congress" today — symbolic in the sense that Tea-Publicans plan to hold a series of symbolic votes this year to not only reverse the Obama administration's legislative successes of the past two years but to repeal the entire 20th Century. One of their first votes will be to repeal (but not replace) the Affordable Care Act, scheduled for January 12.

These symbolic votes will, of course, die in the Democratic controlled Senate and, should some conservadems in the Senate allow a regressive bill to slip through, President Obama will veto it — and his veto will not be overridden in the Senate.

In other words, Tea-Publicans are behaving like ill-behaved children in their terrible threes throwing a temper tantrum. They have come to Washington to "drown the government in the bathtub" as their lord and master Grover Norquist has commanded them, not to govern responsibly. But they will be thwarted at every turn, resulting in more childish temper tantrums.

It is all a useless exercise — except for how the corporate media will allow these unruly children to frame the political narrative instead of pointing out that Tea-Publicans are incapable of responsible governance, they are accomplishing nothing, and they are wasting valuable time while the nation's serious needs go unaddressed.

In a press conference on Tuesday, House Democratic leaders unloaded on House Republicans for their hypocrisy on their effort to repeal health care reform. House Democrats Call GOP Health Reform Repeal Vote Sham Theater (see link for video):

Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) was almost sneering when she made her remarks:

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, addressing reporters at a news conference with other House Democratic leaders Tuesday, called the GOP move "disingenuous" and "nothing but political theater."

"It is a Kabuki dance," she said. "The fact of the matter is we're not going to repeal health care. It is not going to happen."

Outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, cited projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noting that the Democrats' overhaul will lower the federal deficit over the long term.

As a result, she argued, a GOP-led health care reform repeal would "do very serious violence to the national debt" — undermining a central Republican pledge of fiscal responsibility.

The Republicans "will employ budget gimmicks" and "Enron-type accounting" to make the claim that a repeal of health care reform won't increase the debt, predicted Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland. "That kind of flim-flam" is what people came to expect of Republicans the last time they ran Congress, he said.

Of course it's theater. They've got to play to the base, after all and hold a symbolic vote on a symbolic bill which will never go anywhere. The repeal bill uses the term "job-killing" at least 5 times according to Dave Weigel, and of course, it's named the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act", after all.

That title and this little act of foot-stomping on the part of Republicans makes me want to tell them all that it's nap time in Washington, hand out their pacifiers and blankies and turn out the lights.

Also, as DeLauro noted, somewhere between the campaign and the draft of this bill, the word "replace" was forgotten. Repeal, yes. Replace? Not so much.

Symbolism over substance. it's all they've got.

UPDATE: Think Progress adds, Despite Demanding ‘Bipartisan Discussions’ On Health Reform, Republicans To Vote On Repeal Without Hearings:

Democrats in the House held “79 bipartisan hearings and markups” since 2008, incorporated Republican amendments and posted the original House bill online for 30 days. Republicans, meanwhile, intend to post the repeal legislation tonight but have not announced any formal hearings or plans to bring Democrats into the process. [before the January 12 vote]

But throughout the 15-month health reform debate, the GOP repeatedly accused Democrats of ramming through [cramming through, jamming through] the health care bill without going through a bipartisan process.

* * *

[T]he Washington Post’s Greg Sargent reported that Democrats intend to discuss the consequences of undoing the measure on the House floor and through a series of amendments.